A School Production

Tonight was the final night of the TEMIS school production – The Little Mermaid – and I do mean production.  Although the play is directed and choreographed by two TEMIS faculty memebers, students in grades 3 – 8 rehearse, plan, design, organize, and run the show.  Parents and staff help with set design and costume creating, but the backstage crew is definitely something to be in awe of.  Faculty and staff hang around backstage for supervision purposes only, but I do believe we may be more in the way than an asset of any kind. 

It was Opening Night and I had been signed up to work the Sea Creature dressing room (grade 3-4s).  I walked into the theater and all of the decorations and props the entire school had been working on during Production (two hours on Thursday afternoons for nearly the entire quarter) hung from the ceiling and walls of the canteen and the poles holding up the covering of the open air lobby.  The brown, damp theater had been transformed into a colorful world Under the Sea (These decorations and props now hang from the rafters in the TEMIS library). 

Backstage was buzzing with nervous excitement as I walked through to the dressing room.  The director and choreographer had gathered the entire cast and crew on stage moments before the audience is admitted from the lobby.  Rama, the director, was prancing and dancing and cheering with the kids in a stunning red cocktail dress while sipping a “made it to opening night” celebratory glass of champagne.  Rachelle, the choreographer, sipped her glass more to calm her nerves than to celebrate just yet.  The costume-clad students did one last “We are GREAT!” cheer and scurried off to their respective dressing rooms and places backstage for curtain call.  (Yes!  The faculty and staff had a glass of champagne or two in front of the students – the principal got it for them!  How different from home where teachers are expected to act as saints both in school and out?!  Alcohol isn’t even served at our Teacher of the Year banquet in St Johns County.There was even a bar serving theater goers at this school-sponsored event.)

I snuck out of the dressing room for a moment of sanity-seeking mid-show to sneak a peak of the show from stage right.  It was a well-oiled machine back there.  The stage manager “barked” orders at others with exaggerated hand motions.  Crew members threw all their weight onto the pully-system used to drop the set flies, while others hung above stage over the catwalks dangling frolicking fish and shimmying seahorses during the Under the Sea dance number.  I stood wide eyed mentally creating a list of safety hazards in this old and dated theater and ticking off an extensive list of “this would never be allowed in a school back home” student jobs and actions. 

A student from my class was props manager and director.  He sat me down Friday night, my night to assist stage left, and goes over the prop list with me.  He explained how everything was organized in the props cabinet and who was in his crew.  This student then looked at me as seriously as a doctor would when giving life-saving instructions for a nurse to carry out and calmly stated (in his beautiful Australian accent), “Now, Miss Kaizar, your only job tonight is to stay out of my way.”

I know we have school plays and school productions in the States.  I was a part of excellent student-centered theater groups in middle and high school, both at South River and in Belgium at SHAPE.  Murray Middle in St Augustine is home to our county's arts program.  They are nothing compared to a TEMIS production; I say this because of the ages of the children running the production.  Students as young as 8 are both helping backstage and cast as significant roles on stage.  The amount of time taken from class to make a production like this come together would NEVER be allowed back home – it would detract from teaching academics and test taking skills.  I can with 150% certainty say that every minute taken from core academic instruction to bring The Little Mermaid to fruition was well worth it.  To see students take on leadership roles backstage and students who are normal shy and quiet come to life on stage and even those in the audience take such pride in their artwork displayed around the theater was truly a wonderful thing.  It was a huge reminder as to why I was so excited when I was offered a position at Ela Murray and even more of a wake-up call as to what our students back home are missing out on as the arts are not so slowly phasing out of public schools.  Every aspect of getting this show together was good for kids and throughout the weekend all I could think of was what my former students were missing out on – not having the excitement, the creativity, and the responsibility that comes along with a school production.

Now that I’ve hopped off my soap box, grab a glass of champagne, sip and enjoy some snapshots from this weekend’s Under the Sea festivities.